It Has Been Said

IT HAS BEEN SAID* and collected by T. H. SELDONf "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."—Samuel Johnson "Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight from them."—Thomas Mann "If your folks didn't have any children, there's a good chance that you won't have any."—Anon. "I was gratified to be able to answer promptly and I did. I said I didn't know."—Mark Twain "It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."—Mark Twain "Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."—William James "The world is full ofwilling people: some willing to work, the rest willing to let them."—Robert Frost "Lots of folks wouldn't look as old as they do ifthey didn't act as young as they do."—N. Digiovanni "A man has to live with himselfand he should see to it that he always has good company."—Charles Evans Hughes "Illness is a great leveler. At its touch, the artificial distinctions of society vanish away. People in a hospital are just people."—Max Thorek "When you have a fight with your conscience and get licked, you win."— Nuggets ?Material appearing under this tide is collected with the aim of making the serious a bit less serious, the ponderous a bit less heavy, and the reading hours a bit more fun. We invite you to share a collection of your humorous treasures with PBM readers. t2015 Southfield Court, S.W., Rochester, Minnesota 55901. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1978 | 445 "You can only improve on saying nothing by saying nothing often."—Frank Tyger "I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head."—Theodore Roosevelt "Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit."—R. E. Shay "The secret of being tiresome is in telling everything."—Voltaire "Democracy is ever eager for rapid progress, and the only progress which can be rapid is progress downhill."—Sir James Jearis "A cold is both positive and negative; sometimes the eyes have it and sometimes the nose."—William Lyon Phelps "Speaking or writing without thinking is like shooting without aiming."—Arnold Glasow "The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them."—Frank McKinney Hubbard "When 1 rest, I rust."—Fritz Thyssen "Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order."—John Adams "Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage."—Disraeli "Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone."—T. Jones. "Busy souls have no time to be busybodies."—Austin O'Malley ERRATUM In "It Has Been Said" and collected by I. N. Dubin (21, 296, Winter 1978) on page 300, last line, for "include" read "incline." 446 T. H. Seldon ¦ It Has Been Said TO WORDS In the beginning singular you were and nothing other. When I chanced along, myriad you had become. Enamored I was of you and am. I garnered you with energetic delight. As well with pain I built of you a Trove, mine only, accessible just to me. I used you as I was able, in divers ways, to meanings build, establish bridges to isolated islands of experience. Thought residue brought by you into the sensate glow of now: Understanding. Wilu Bold Erratum In "It Has Been Said" and collected by T. H. Seldon (21:445, Spring 1978), line 3, for "from" read "for." 590 I Verse ...